Into Peru – 4/30/2013
May 2nd, 2013 by rallyadmin
Arica is only a short distance from the frontier with Peru. We, as usual, get a bit lost trying to get out of town. We had seen a supermarket near where we had the oil changed yesterday and we wanted to but some water. We found the store but when we went to leave we followed a main boulevard that led us off in the wrong direction. And the GPS, just trying to help, got us off on a wander about some canyons headed north instead of northwest.
We finally get straightened out and headed in the right direction. We cruise up the Panamericana along the shore and make the border in 30 minutes. There’s sign in the Chilean exit immigration parking are that says clearly that this is a 2 step process. We’ll see.
We park the car and get in line. The first stop in immigration. Passports and immigration sheet. On entry to Chile, you have to, of course, show your passport but you also have to fill out a small form which entry immigration stamps and gives back to you. You have to show this form with your passport when checking into hotels. When leaving Chile, you surrender the form.
If you have them form, that is. I had mine in my passport but John had either lost or misplaced his and whenever we were checking in he had to play dumb and fake the missing form. Now, it was time to surrender the missing form. No form. “The hotel kept it by mistake.” Back and forth a couple of times and the immigration officer gives up. Stamp. Stamp. On to step 2, the car.
We have a carnet for the car. A carnet is an international document that define the car and is used as an exemption for a temporary registration for the car in countries that require a temporary registration for foreign registered cars. That means that we don’t have a temporary registration. It also means that when we try to exit Chile with the car, confusion reigns.
We had the woman the title for the car and the carnet. She looks at the title. Then she studies the carnet. The she holds up a temporary registration form and says that we must have gotten one of these. We tell we didn’t. She insists. So much for the 2 step process.
We go back to the car and start hunting through the pile of documents for any document that has anything at all to do with importing the car to Chile. Back to the woman. Hand her all the documents. She still insists. We still insist that we don’t need one. She asks another officer and he appears to agree with us. She gives up.
She takes a copy of the bill of lading for the car. Tears off the export half of the carnet sheet. Stamps the export side of the tab (the most important part of this process for us) and hands everything back to us. Have a good trip. It’s a 2½ step process.
Back in the car and into no-mans-land between Chile and Peru. We’re out of Chile but not yet in Peru. We pull up to the immigration parking area which is full so we line up with the other cars waiting to get in. There’s some scurrying about and customs officers looking into empty cars which is a bit suspicious. Then with the waiting line starts to stretch back into no-mans-land, a police officer waves some of the waiting cars out of the line and into another area to park so that we can get into the immigration line.
We get in line and at the front door of the immigration area an officer hands us each an immigration form and motions us out of line to fill them out. We fill them out and get back into the line which is now much longer than it was originally. We wait. The lines moves. A woman in front of us points to her suitcase and says something in Spanish which we don’t understand. She tries to help but ends up with a shrug. Dumb NorteAmericanos.
We get the passports stamped. Put the immigration forms in our passports where they won’t get misplaced. Step #1, check. Back to the car.
Of course the car is now in the wrong place outside of the area where the inspections are taking place. And no the won’t do the inspection here. We must drive to a different lot. In that lot a very nice customs inspector leads the 2 old men to the right lot where we park.
An inspector of some sort (not a customs inspector) brings us a luggage cart and tells us to take everything(!) out of the car including the large, heavy and bring it to the inspection area. You mean everything? Yes, everything. Bummer. Steps #2 and #3, check.
We get everything onto 3 luggage carts and shlep it up the baggage inspection area which is right next to the passport control. That’s what the wpoman was trying to tell us. We near the door and an inspector opens and holds the door for us and motions for everything but the metal box to go through the x-ray machine. You’d think we were at airport security.
Of all the borders I’ve crossed and there have been a lot of them, I’ve had all of my luggage searched or x-rayed except to get on a plane. If you live long enough you get to see everything, I guess. And they do search everything even hand checking my computer and camera bags.
We pass, I guess, and they help us shlep everything out the other side of the building where I wait while John goes to get the car. He gets the thrill of trying to figure out how to get the car through to this side. Right now, we’re at step #4, I think.
I wait. And wait. And wait. In the US or Canada or even Europe, this might be cause for concern. But everything here is slower and much more confusing. Add to everything that we have a US registered car with a carnet and what you get is delays. Find a shady spot and wait.
Eventually, John and the car show up. There hadn’t been anything wrong just John’s confusion about what the secret procedure to follow is. And, as usual, a very nice customs inspector took John and the car on as a project and that sped things up greatly. And Peru doesn’t require a carnet. Who-hoo! Step #5, check.
We load everything into the car, change some money, go to the bano and we’re outta here. Stop at the immigration exit gate. Hand in the form. Step #6, check.
As we drive down the road toward Tacna, the first city of size in Peru, we notice that we’re right back in the desert. The same bloody, completely empty desert we’ve been driving through for days. We’re headed for Arequipa to spend the night about 400 kms away.
It’s obvious that the desert doesn’t know or care care about borders. The sparse vegetation and few buildings around the border area soon give way to the high empty flat land of the desert. No animal or trees or scrub or weeds or even much traffic. This is starting to get old.
This goes on until we get to the outskirts of Arequipa. The delay at the border has meant that we are arriving again in the dark. And the traffic in Arequipa is just madness. Boy, am I happy. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of the strange Chinese three-wheeled taxis that look somewhat like Indian tuk-tuks. They are everywhere and they drive very aggressively. The good news is that they are pretty good drivers and don’t seem to push the issue to far.
We are looking for a highly recommended hotel, Casa de mi Buela. We find the street it’s on but we pass the address without seeing it. That means that we have to circle around through the one-way streets and alleys to get back to the one-way street that the hotel is on.
We find the hotel. Check in. Up the stairs to the room. Oh, right. We’re at 8,500 feet above sea level. Better slow down a bit. Dinner in the hotel with a very nice Swiss couple. And finally, bed.
Welcome to Peru.
Obi-wan